David Hayward
David Hayward was a fictional character on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children. He was portrayed by Vincent Irizarry from November 27, 1997 to March 2, 1998. Irizarry reprises the role on July 8, 1998 and remained with the series until November 28, 2006. Irizarry returned a second time on October 23, 2008, remaining with the series until it aired its final episode on September 23, 2011. Storylines 1997–2006 Dr. David Hayward arrived in Pine Valley in November 1997 in order to give a lecture on cardiac care at the Pine Valley Hospital, while also hoping to win back his ex-lover, Allie Doyle. David had initially met Allie at Stanford University, where he had held the position of Associate Director of Cardiology. When the same position opened up at Pine Valley Hospital, Dr. Joe Martin hired David for it. Allie was unhappy with David's reappearance in her life, as she had broken off her relationship with him upon learning that he had been unfaithful numerous times. David swore to Allie that he had changed, even going as far to propose marriage, but Allie refused. David's desperation reached no heights, when having exhausted all efforts to get Allie back, he resorted to blackmailing her. David had been privy to the knowledge that Allie had doctored her transcripts in order to gain admission to Stanford, which she believed would be kept a secret. However, David threatened to reveal this information should Allie refuse to marry him, even presenting her with an engagement ring. Despite the threat of blackmail looming over her head, she still refused, and divulged her secret to the man she truly loved, Dr. Jake Martin. David told Allie that he had come to accept that their relationship was over and told her that he would leave her alone. Unbeknownst to Allie, David was plotting revenge on Jake. When Jake was treating Adam Chandler for an impending stroke, David tampered with the medication that Jake was using to treat Adam. As as result, Adam's heart condition continued to deteriorate, allowing David to step in and save the day. Further exacerbating things, David then presented evidence that Jake had tried to murder Adam, which resulted in Jake being suspended from the hospital pending an investigation. Jake eventually turned the tables on David, enlisting Liza Colby and Stuart Chandler in a scheme to trap him. They were able to catch David confessing that he had been responsible for the medication switch that nearly killed Adam on a hidden camera. In an effort to preserve himself, David claimed that he had only made an error in selecting the medication, and asked the hospital board to be lenient. Joe wouldn't accept that, and demanded that David be terminated. Subsequently, David left Pine Valley in March 1998, but not before he let Liza know that he was attracted to her. In July 1998, Palmer Cortlandt was able to get David reinstated at the hospital, following his assistance in helping Palmer's niece, Dixie Cooney, heal from a serious heart ailment. After appearing on Liza's TV show, David made an effort to start up a relationship with her, but knowing trouble where she saw it, she brushed him off. Despite this, David continued to pursue Liza, and was even instrumental in helping her give birth to her daughter, Colby Chandler, after she went into premature labor. Although she was grateful for all that he had done, Liza still remained unable to forgive David for his past transgressions. In February 1999, David's mother, Vanessa Bennett, arrived in Pine Valley, troubling David greatly as he had believed her responsible for the death of his father, and nearly allowed her to die when Vanessa collapsed from heart problems. David was aware that Adam, not Jake, was the biological father of Colby, having evidence that Adam had switched his sperm sample with Jake's. In an effort to exact revenge on Liza for rejecting him, David plotted to break the news as Adam and Liza's wedding. In his attempt to get there on time, he drove through a blizzard with Erica Kane as his passenger, and the two became involved in a car accident. Despite David saving her life, Erica was left badly scarred. As Erica became unbalanced by her disfigurement, she held David hostage in her basement, with his hand caught in a vise, ready to be crushed at any time. Realizing the consequences of his treatment of others, David was overcome by guilt and remorse, and asked Erica to crush his hand, but Erica could not bring herself to do so. After leaving Erica's basement, he disappeared, but returned a short time later in order to whisk Erica away to South America for reconstructive surgery. Despite his past of using and discarding women, David came to truly care for Erica, and the two soon became engaged. However, Erica could not tolerate his flaws nor his dedication to medicine over his dedication to her. Following the dissolution of his relationship with Erica, David found himself falling for Dixie, who was working as his assistant at the Andrassy Foundation. Becoming increasingly obsessed with her, David made an attempt to create a rift in her marriage to Tad Martin. Enlisting the assistance of Leslie Coulson, an attorney who was obsessed with Tad, David hatched a plot to make Tad seem unfaithful by drugging him with Libidozone, a sexual enhancement drug. David accidentally dropped all the Libidozone into the punch bowl at a party on the Fidelity Yacht, resulting in a very raucous night, during which Tad believed he had slept with Leslie. When Dixie learned of the supposed affair, she went to David for comfort, and although she cared deeply for David, she ended their relationship when the truth of his manipulations came to light. During the summer of 2001, David was tried in court for his misuse of the Libidozone medication, but was let off with a slap on the wrist. Concurrent with the events of the trial, David performed a heart transplant on Laura English, the wife of his half-brother, Leo du Pres. Shortly thereafter, David was named the prime suspect in the investigation of an illicit drug ring that was supplying the youth of Pine Valley with illegal substances, led by a mysterious figure simply known as "Proteus". Police chief Anna Devane, targeted David as the primary suspect, but against her better judgment, she soon found herself drawn to him, as he was to her. David became captivated by Anna's self-confidence, strength, and wit, but his lingering affection for Dixie caused difficulty between him and Anna. When Dixie fell ill with heart condition, David flew down to the Caribbean, and saved her life with a drug he had developed. David soon discovered that Dixie was pregnant, but with her continuing health issues, it was unlikely she would be able to survive the pregnancy. David assisted Dixie in leaving Pine Valley, in secret, for a clinic in Switzerland, where he was convinced both she and the baby would survive. Despite being furious with his continued involvement with Dixie, Anna still loved him, and when he was arrested for being "Proteus", the two hurriedly married. As the result of their wedding, Anna, who was aware of David's illegal medical experiments, could not be forced to testify against him. Soon after their wedding, Vanessa was revealed to be the master behind the Proteus drug ring. In an act of cruelty towards David, Vanessa revealed that the father he had idolized had been her predecessor, and had been killed as the result of his mob connections. David was distraught when he came to learn that while in Switzerland, Dixie and her unborn child were killed in a car crash. He soon grew close to Leo, and well as their cousin, Maggie Stone, as they all attempted to come to terms with the pain Vanessa had inflicted upon Pine Valley and themselves. Despite all this, David's relationship with Anna grew even stronger, and they even decided to try to have a baby. However, David's troubled past reappeared when in June 2002, Maria Santos, who had presumably died in a plane crash in August 1997, resurfaced. 2008–2011 Category:All My Children characters